ZAIRE: Winning a Round in a 'Termite War'

Like a Roman emperor at the Colosseum, Zaïre's
President Mobutu Sese Seko strutted into Kinshasa's 20th of May Stadium
last week to the cheers of 60,000 of his countrymen, many of whom had
just snake-danced through the streets of the capital. Waving an
elaborately carved cane, he pointed contemptuously at a pair of
bedraggled, badly wounded prisonersthe first, apparently, to have
been captured by government forces in nearly two months of fighting
against invaders in Shaba province (TIME, April 25). Mobutu's gestures
brought cries of "Mort, mort," (Death, death) from the crowd. Looking
as hapless as Christians facing an...